Role

Chapter 5

Once again, I find myself back under the beating heat of the desert sun. I
march through the sand toward where the Crows say the bandits are. Even
though I am now clothed and carry water for myself and my family, I decide I
forever hate the sun and sand.

I grind my teeth. Actually, I realize that I am actually starting to hate
absolutely everything.

I crest a dune and find a scene of horror. Amongst the sea of sand, the
remains of my mother, brother and sister hang upon wooden poles blistering
and naked. The poles that puncture them are as thick as my wrists, sharp at
the point and tapered. Each has been driven into the anal cavity of the
victim to the point of perforating the mid-torso. In death, their legs droop,
backs arch, arms wing out and downward, and heads recline backward as if they
perished in exaltation. Sockets picked clean by the birds stare at the sky.

A wooden sign has been pounded into the sands before them. It bears the
message:

HERE LIES THE UU'GEN CLAN
MOTHER, BROTHER, SISTER TO UMERUGUU UU'GEN THE HANGMAN
HE TIED THE ROPE THAT HANGED URDRURN DROL, LEADER OF THE CROWS
WITNESS THE COST HE PAYS
WOE TO ANY WHO DARE CROSS US

I stumble toward the bodies of my family in shock. I feel as if my mind is
aware they are dead, but that my heart is not. I am so numb my ears ring with
a low buzz like I have stood too close to the bell that sounded the death
knell of my only loved ones.

My kid brother, Elbuuruu.
My big sister, Eilneera.
My mother, Erfin, who taught us the wicked ways of the duergar after my
nameless father abandoned her.

A sound comes from Elbuuruu. A whispering.

Gods. He is alive. Barely more than a boy, a soft beard covers his face. His
cracked lips part, trying to say something more. I give him water from my
canteen. Most of it spills down his chest. He tries to speak again. I edge
closer to him, fighting tears. "The... Abyss. Brother. Send me..."

It's then that I notice my mother and sister still wheeze, their burned skin
rising and falling with each insidious breath. My mind cannot fathom the
suffering. There are no tracks in the sand but mine. How long have they been
like this?

I pull my knife. Its hilt is warm from the sun. Tension travels down my arm
as the blade penetrates Elbuuruu's chest and then his heart. Next, my sister.
My mother's body trembles softly with the cries she is too weak to form
fully. "Be with them," I whisper and ram my knife into her breast. She jerks
and then is still.